This invention relates to a dart having a rounded nose-tip and to a dartboard for catching such darts, which dartboard comprises a supporting base having a front face and a rear face and on the front face projections protruding from the front face substantially perpendicularly thereto, uniformly spaced from one another and arranged in a regular pattern which extends over at least the major portion of the said front face of the supporting base, so as to hold fast a dart of the type described penetrating between at least two of the projections without the tip penetrating into the front face of the supporting base.
A dart and dartboard of this type are described in published German Patent application No. (Offenlegungsschrift) DE-OS 20 44 391 of Dierk Funke. However, this dartboard for catching "safety" darts, i.e. darts which do not have a sharp point destined for penetrating into the front face of the dartboard, but rather having a rounded forward end, has the drawback of being difficult to manufacture, if dartboards of conventional aspect are to be obtained.
Moreover, darts of this and similar known structure are not caught and held in a reliable manner, but frequently drop away from the dartboard after hitting it. Reasons for this failure of the dart to be caught on the dartboard in the position in which the tip of the dart impinges upon the dartboard are among others, lack of force of penetration of the dart and, on the other hand, the elasticity of the dart-catching projections provided on the target face of the dartboard. Moreover the dart may be too long and/or too heavy to be held by the dart-catching projections of the dartboard.
One particular drawback of darts having a plurality of needles or the like projections at its front tips (e.g. those shown in the aforesaid DE-OS of Dierk Funke, or those shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,989) becomes noticeable when the dart hits a board of the type described in the above-mentioned DE-OS or such patents as U.S. Pat. No. 3,894,736 or 3,949,989 at an angle deviating by about one degree or even a few degrees from the perpendicular on the board. Due to the elasticity of the pin-shaped projections on the board and of the needles or bristles of the dart tip, the dart will be prevented by friction and elastic transverse forces from penetrating fully into the layer of projections on the board, the weight of its part left protruding rearwardly from that layer will be too heavy and the dart will fall off the board.
Conventional dartboards either represent circular and annular zones of different colours, increasing counting values being attributed to such zones from the periphery towards the center of the dartboard. Instead of coloured ring zones, the front face of the dartboard may also bear the picture of an animal, e.g. a stag, a deer, a pheasant or a capercailzie.
The known dartboard disclosed by Dierk Funke, and others mentioned supra, are to be manufactured by assembling on a supporting base a circular centerpiece and, about the latter, successive rings of increasing internal width obtained, for instance, by injection molding. The dart-catching projections of these known dartboards are preferably in the form of pegs arranged in a pattern whereby a dart is caught between three or more pegs, an arrangement of square areas each defined by four pegs at its corners being most preferred. Such a pattern can not be subdivided into annular zones without having the limits of the latter intersect several of the pegs.